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Using 'network' theory in t h e post- network era: fictional 9/11 US

television discourse as a 'cultural Downloaded from forum screen.oxfordjournals.org

AMANDA D. LOTZ at University of Michigan on June 30, 2011 It is likely that the appliance known as 'television' is too multifaceted, broad and contradictory ever to be understood as a coherent entity, despite efforts to theorize it as such. Shifts over the past two in the industrial operation, technological form and breadth of content of the box that is simultaneously a mere appliance and a cultural arbiter have appropriately inspired reflections and retheorization. Whether described as a transition from a classical network system to a post- network era - as has been the dominant conversation in the USA - or theorized as a transition from an era of scarcity through one of 1 1 John Ellis, Seeing Things: availability to one of plenty, as suggested by one recent British work, Television in the Age of there appears to be agreement that the object of study is shifting in Uncertainty (: IB Tauris, 2000). significant ways. These changes in television as an object of inquiry necessitate reassessment of the theoretical lenses through which we have viewed this significant industrial, technological and cultural artefact. The most profound changes require that we reconsider television's status as a mass medium. Television remains a ubiquitous media form and a technology widely owned and used in the USA and many similarly industrialized nations, but the vast expansion in the multiplicity of networks streaming through its corporeal structure has diminished the degree to which cultures encounter television viewing as a experience. Television arguably remains the most 'mass'

423 Screen 4 5 : 4 Winter 2004 • ®John L° 9 ' e Baird Centre Z004 •A"ri9htsr e s e r v e d medium, but its content has grown more narrowly targeted so that the audience at any one moment is often more accurately theorized as a collection of niches rather than as a mass. This redefinition of television's sociocultural operation requires reassessment of theories constructed to understand the medium in its network era context. Most of the foundational theories guiding the study of television were developed at a specific moment in which a particular set of institutional operations governed global norms for the international media industry. These norms of institutional relations and practices have changed in both subtle and radical ways since the establishment of foundational models, and these theoretical frameworks now require reassessment to account for institutional and cultural changes. In the case of US television, the emergence of new broadcast competitors and the overwhelming penetration of cable and satellite systems with their delivery of a vast multiplicity of networks are but two of many changes that have altered the US television industry, while other national contexts have experienced similar expansions in Downloaded from both public and privately operated networks. Television continues to occupy a central place in US media use, but the degree to which broad

audiences share content has eroded significantly as a consequence of screen.oxfordjournals.org the expansion in programming providers. Although the 'hardware' of television technology has changed slightly, its 'applications' have multiplied extensively, altering audiences' perception of 'television' and necessitating address of the most basic question, 'what is 2 at University of Michigan on June 30, 2011 See Charlotte Brunsdon, 'What is television?', in this emergent cultural and institutional environment. the 'television' of television Much foundational media theory is rooted in the presumption of widely studies?', in Christine Geraghty and David Lusted (eds), The shared texts, and the degree to which a truly mass audience sees fewer Television Studies Book [New and fewer common texts necessitates reconsideration of this and other York, NY: St Martin's Press, assumptions supporting the critical study of television. 1998), pp. 95-113. In this essay I focus on Horace Newcomb and Paul Hirsch's 'cultural forum model' of television, and attend to some of its less frequently emphasized aspects in the task of determining how it may or may not remain a valuable model for the critical analysis of television texts. As an object, 'television' was once more simple and understandable as a fairly monolithic entity. At that time, universalizing models offered exceptional explanatory value. Various industrial and cultural factors redefining 'television' require that those who study the medium pay closer attention to the model they use relative to the phenomenon they seek to study. Grounding television scholarship in theories that address how the post-network era adjusts the object of study necessitates that we explore how the changed institutional environment has altered many of the assertions, rightly assumed by the cultural forum model, which now seem of questionable validity. The essay closes with an application that illustrates the continued utility of the cultural forum model in examining a topic or theme present across a variety of programmes or episodes. In the months

424 Screen 45:4 Winter 2004 • Amanda D. Lotz • Using 'network' theory in the post-network era following the events of 9/11 in New York and Washington, at least fourteen hours of fictional dramatic narrative dealt with themes such as racial profiling and stereotyping, privacy erosion, suspension of due process rights, possibilities for activism, and the general altered reality resulting from the fear engendered by the attacks. The cultural forum is the model best used to explore such a narrative phenomenon because of its tools for incorporating the breadth of texts and the multiple valences of their stories. Understanding television to a cultural forum in its broadest sense also requires the consideration of non-narrative texts such as news and documentaries. Focusing on only the forms of narrative storytelling that receive less critical attention, however, reveals the continued viability of the cultural forum, as well as types of research to which it is not as well-suited as a critical framework.

Television as a cultural forum

The supposition that television as a medium creates a cultural forum Downloaded from underpins much existing critical television scholarship, although this is not always explicitly stated. This foundational model, initially proposed in 1983, focuses aspects of the approach to studying culture emerging 3 screen.oxfordjournals.org 3 Horace Newcomb and Paul M. in British cultural studies on US television. With this model, Horace Hirsch, 'Television as a cultural Newcomb and Paul Hirsch attempt to reconcile divergent approaches forum', in Horace Newcomb (ed.), Television: the Critical View (New and emphases resulting from the bifurcated intellectual history of much York, NY: Oxford University Press, US media scholarship by blending the approach of communication 1994), pp. 503-15. Originally

scholars who studied television as a communication medium with that at University of Michigan on June 30, 2011 published in Quarterly Review of Film Studies (Summer 1983). of film and literary scholars who considered it an aesthetic object. Newcomb and Hirsch's essay goes beyond the titular naming of a model for studying television to offer an explanation of one of the central questions in media studies - how a commercial mass-mediated form presents content with varying ideological valences. The cultural forum model contains at least three interrelated assertions that argue for the significance or consequence of television as a mass medium, assertions related to the scope of television's reach, its ability to 4 Horace Newcomb's 1984 article, 'On the dialogic aspects of mass provide a space for the negotiation of ideological positions, and as a communication', might be read as process-based system of representation and discourse. The cultural a coda to his contribution to the forum model consequently has supported a broad range of scholarship culture forum model, as he adds an explanation of the operation that examines television with recognition of its complexity, although of power missing from the work some have added a clearer statement of the operation of power within coauthored with Hirsch. Here, he the model.4 roots his textual analysis in theories of hegemony emerging The title of Newcomb and Hirsch's essay suggests the first of three at that time from British cultural assertions maintained by the model through assumptions one might studies, and uses a version of make about the scope required of a medium for its influence to be hegemony more flexible than that utilized by scholars such as Gitlin. significant enough to create a 'cultural forum'. Television provides a Horace Newcomb, 'On the cultural forum precisely because of its vast reach both in terms of dialogic aspects of mass geography and culture. Three national networks defined US 'television' communication', Critical Studies in Mass Communication, v o l . 1, in the network era of the article's composition. When audiences or no. 1 (1984), pp. 34-50. scholars referred to television, they meant ABC, CBS and NBC, and

425 Screen 45:4 Winter 2004 'Amanda D- Lotz' Us'na 'network' theory in the post-network era perhaps on occasion PBS or a few particularly vibrant independent stations. The scope assertion follows Newcomb's 1974 statement on the significance of television study that argues, 'Television is a crucially important object of study not only because it is a new "form", a different "medium", but because it brings its massive audience into a 5 5 Horace Newcomb, TV: the Most direct relationship with particular sets of values and attitudes'. The Popular Art (Garden City, NY: heterogeneity of network era audiences' psychographic features and Anchor Books, 1974), p. 244. My emphasis. tastes contributed to the compelling nature of the cultural forum model and similar media theories. The scope reached by television content made early arguments for its significance highly compelling because of its status as such a widely shared media form. The second assertion of the cultural forum model is that as a medium, television provides a space for the negotiation and discussion of ideological positions. This tenet is characteristic of British cultural studies theory in its allowance for even corporatized mass media content to be the site of contradictory and complex ideological 6 6 The article draws from Stuart messages. Of television, Newcomb and Hirsch write: 'In its role as Hall, 'Encoding and decoding in central cultural medium it presents a multiplicity of meanings rather Downloaded from the television discourse', in 7 Culture, Media, Language than a monolithic dominant point of view'. Relatedly, the authors also (London: Hutchinson, 1980), assert that television 'does not present firm ideological conclusions - pp. 128-38, to make this despite its formal conclusions - so much as it comments on ideological screen.oxfordjournals.org assertion. 8 7 Newcomb and Hirsch, 'Television problems'. In this way the forum model diverges from other as a cultural forum', p. 506. foundational scholarship that asserts a more powerful and singular 8 Ibid, p. 508. Emphasis in original. voice for television in perpetuating dominant ideology. The final assertion of the cultural forum model particularly relevant to the reconsideration I provide here is its emphasis on human at University of Michigan on June 30, 2011 interaction with television as a process. Newcomb and Hirsch stress that television must be considered beyond isolated utterances of episodes, days or series, but as a 'whole system that presents a mass audience with the range and variety of ideas and ideologies inherent in 9 9 Ibid. American culture'. This broad understanding of television as an entity more encompassing than a single viewing experience, or as an object of study that cannot be adequately minimized to a single series or set of episodes, is particularly valuable to the questions considered by academic critics. This assertion suggests the need to deliberate upon the notion of television units, which becomes particularly crucial in the post-network era. The authors' attention to understanding television through ritualistic views of communication is also relevant here and reasserts a conception of television content as process rather than object. This emphasis on understanding the relationship between television and culture as a process is similar to the theory of television as 10 10 Ellis, Seeing Things, pp. 74-129. 'working through' proposed by Ellis. Ellis's recent work presents a thorough reconsideration of the theoretical consequences of television's changes to date, yet he does not directly explore the consequences of the redistribution of audiences (perhaps because this has not yet occurred as significantly in the British context). Ellis notes that

426 Screen ^ 4 Winter 2004 • Amanda D. Lotz • Using 'network' theory in the post-network era 'Television can be seen as a vast mechanism for processing the material of the witnessed world into more narrativized, explained forms', which is an assertion similar to that argued by the cultural 11 11 Ibid, p. 78. forum and supports the argument presented here. Ellis does acknowledge that the breadth of content that audiences now choose from diminishes the social importance of any programme, but he does not address how this might be incorporated into theorizing the 'social 12 12 Ibid, p. 72. forum' that television creates. 'Working through' may describe the process of meaning making, but it is now the case that diverse populations work through markedly different content and ideas as a result of substantial variance in the television content that serves as stimuli. By interrogating our assumptions of television's scope and selecting units of analysis relevant to the institutional context that we study, models such as the cultural forum can be retheorized to account for the disparity in viewing now common.

US television's changed institutional environment Downloaded from

The cultural forum model assumes the operations of the network era of US television, a time during which only three networks competed for the attention of viewers. From the wide-scale availability of television screen.oxfordjournals.org from the early 1950s to the late 1970s, networks ABC, CBS and NBC 13 13 The exceptions were independent provided viewers' only choice. In this three-way race, most series had stations (those not affiliated with to draw more than 30% of those watching television to remain on the a network), and public stations air, and successful series might attract as much as 40% of the audience.

whose formal structure was at University of Michigan on June 30, 2011 established in 1967 and counted Although the level of television viewing among the population has approximately 250 stations remained relatively constant and even increased, viewers now choose nationwide. See Michele Hilmes, Only Connect: a Cultural History from many more options. The gradual distribution of cable first altered of Broadcasting in the United the range of options for many viewers. In 1980 only 19.9% of States (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, households subscribed to cable; a figure that grew to 50% by 1988. In 2002), p. 232. 2004, more than 85% of US households received channels either by 14 14 Initiative Media, Today in cable or satellite, and those homes received an average of one hundred National Television. 9 April 2004. channels.15 15 Nielsen Media Research, TV Audience (New York, NY: Nielsen For those who receive programming via cable or satellite, as well as Media Research, 2003). those still receiving signals over the air, additional broadcast competitors also changed the terrain and expanded programme offerings. Fox first began broadcasting in 1986, and networks The WB and UPN emerged a decade later. The development of all of these new programming outlets has gradually eroded the mass audience. Where 90% of those watching television watched broadcast networks at the

16 John Thornton Caldwell, beginning of the 1980s, by the decade's end the figure amounted to 16 Televisuality: Style. Crisis, and only 64% due to increased viewership of cable networks. Network Authority in American Television share continued to decline during the 1990s, although not at such a (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1995), p. 11. sharp rate; by 2002-2003, the seven broadcast networks and the 17 Stephanie Spady, 'Primetime advertising-supported cable networks both claimed a 50% audience update: 2002-03 full broadcast share, with cable lagging by only two-tenths of one ratings point.17 year', Media Insights: MAGNA Global USA, 24 September 2003. Examining changes in the ratings of the thirty most viewed shows

427 Screen 45:4 Winter 2004 • Amanda D. Lotz • Using 'network' theory in the post-network era provides another way to quantify the change in viewing. In the network era of three dominant US networks, the top thirty programmes earned ratings between twenty and thirty, a number that indicates the percentage of households with televisions who were watching that programme. For example, in the 1959-60 season, Gunsmoke w a s the most watched programme and drew an average rating of 40.3, while The Perry Como Show and Lassie tied for twenty-ninth with a rating of 23.1. By the 1998-99 season, a point by which a transition to a post- network era was evident, the highest rated series earned a 17.8 rating (ER), while a programme could rank in the top thirty with a rating of nine. In 2002-03, the most watched series (CSI: Crime Scene Investigation) e a r n e d a 16.3 rating and the thirtieth-placed show rated 18 18 Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh, The only 7.7. Complete Directory to It is not that some other giant emerged to supplant the dominant Network and Cable TV Shows. 1946-Present {New York, NY: place of the once invulnerable Big Three networks, but instead down to Ballantine Books, 2003), the steady assault of a plurality of Lilliputians. Drawing 2% of viewers pp. 1455-72. remains a noteworthy accomplishment for many cable networks, but

that 2% multiplied by networks and the 1% drawn by another ten Downloaded from now adds up to a significant absence of broadcast viewers. Fortuitously for the Big Three, many advertisers still seek to use their television

dollars to reach the widest possible audience with a single screen.oxfordjournals.org advertisement, which has prevented the broadcast networks from seeing 19 19 For example, the cost to their advertising rates substantially compromised by the competition. advertisers to reach a thousand With broadcast erosion continuing, however, it is only a matter of time viewers (CPM) averaged $15 on until advertisers flee in greater numbers to the substantially lower cost broadcast while only $9 on cable. Steve McClellan, 'Discovery per thousand viewers available on cable. at University of Michigan on June 30, 2011 challenge', Broadcasting & Cable, Other adjustments suggesting the transition to a post-network era 18 November 2002, pp. 18-20, also exist, but are less relevant to reevaluating the utility of the cultural p. 18. Also see John M. Higgins and Allison Romano, 'Cheaper by forum model as a theoretical base for the critical study of television. the thousand', Broadcasting & The establishment of three additional broadcast networks and the Cable, 4 February 2002, foothold gained by a multitude of cable networks suggest that pp. 20-28. assumptions about the scope of particular television programmes are now in question. The post-network era directly alters the conditions upon which the model's first assertion is based, but the degree to which this first assertion serves as a linchpin also calls the others into question. The utility of the cultural forum model is not lost; however, the post-network transition does require attention be paid to how it is applied and increased emphasis on its other assertions.

Reconsidering post-network us television as a cultural forum The most basic question that begins this inquiry then is whether television truly does continue to provide a cultural forum given the extent of audience dispersion in the post-network era. The model takes 'television' as its object of study, an entity that at one time seemed coherent and comprehensible when limited to three outlets. The alterations of the post-network era, however, challenge previous understandings of 'television' so that a shared definition is less clear.

428 Screen 454 Winter 2004 • Amanda D. Lotz • Using 'network' theory in the post-network era Addressing the continued viability of the cultural forum model and considering 'what is "television" in the post-network era' are not esoteric theoretical exercises lacking practical use. Refining theoretical tools better enables us to address industrial and policy questions that bear material consequences. Reassessing foundational models and understandings of the relationships between cultural texts, their institutional creators and the society that receives them is just as important as work attempting to explain and theorize new developments. Critical perspectives must acknowledge how the object of study has changed because the adjustments may make once valuable topics and lines of inquiry increasingly irrelevant. The significance of a single television series, if studied with an emphasis on its cultural or social contribution, decreases if it is not widely shared. There are vast and varied programming options available in the post-network era, but a show viewed only by one million viewers requires a different framework for analysis than one viewed in the same era by eight million, or a series viewed by twenty million in the network era. With the ample variation in audience size that now exists, we must be careful Downloaded from to address these variations and not assume all television content to be equivalently significant, particularly when inquiries centre on

ideological contributions. screen.oxfordjournals.org On some level it is readily apparent that few if any television series airing currently - or even in the 1990s - could be said to have enacted a cultural forum in the same way as series such as Father Knows Best from the 1950s, All in the Family from the 1970s, or The Cosby Show at University of Michigan on June 30, 2011 which ran from 1984 to 1992. Of course post-network series continue to perform the cultural forum process for the audience members viewing them, but they are decreasingly seen by mass and heterogeneous audiences. The situation in the post-network era is reminiscent of the adage questioning whether a tree falls in the forest if there is no one there to hear the sound. With so many other options available, it is increasingly unlikely that ideologically polarized audiences view the same series, particularly those known for transcending dominant norms. For example, it seems reasonable to expect that the audience of a show such as Queer as Folk (2000-) is a self-selected niche that deliberately seeks out specific non-mainstream content, making the audience and its relationship to programming very different than in the network era. So if a series or aspect of television presents a view contradicting or negotiating dominant ideological perspectives, and no one but those critical of the dominant ideology sees it, is its challenge to hegemony diminished? What can Queer as Folk accomplish if the audience's knowledge of the series leads homophobes to ignore it? The niche-

20 See Janet Staiger, Blockbuster specific audience that makes such a show possible arguably also 7V|New York. NY: New York prevents it from enacting the consciousness-raising some have University Press, 2000), p. 193 suggested a series such as All in the Family achieved.20 In another case, fn. 60, for a review of this research. media critics often posited that an increase in the depictions of

429 Screen ^5:4 Winter 2004 • Amanda D. Lotz • Using 'network' theory in the post-network era African-Americans on television would help decrease racism and ethnic prejudice within society. The number of black characters and roles have increased since the 1980s, but consequences of the post- network era on audience composition call into question earlier theories about the social tolerance such a presence would indicate. Although the number of US situation comedies featuring African-American casts increased throughout the 1990s, comedy audiences simultaneously 21 21 See, among many other became segregated alongside the bifurcation of sitcom casts. The journalistic accounts, James increasing number of comedies starring black actors arguably has not Sterngold, 'A racial divide widens on network TV', The New York resulted in a corresponding increase in those images and stories being Times, 29 December 1998, p. A 1 . seen by white audiences. Network-era standards of relevance and significance do us disservice in a changed industrial context if analyses do not account for institutional alterations. A model for adapting to the adjusted industry logic appears if we look to programmers and executives in the television industry. As Michael Curtin notes, 'industry discourse about the mass audience no longer refers to one simultaneous experience so much as a shared 22 Downloaded from 22 Michael Curtin, 'Feminine desire asynchronous cultural milieu'. The industry has adjusted its strategies in the age of ', in response to the multiplicity of programme providers so that Journal of Communication, vol. 49, no. 2 (1999), pp. 55-70, competitors now seek both the broad blockbuster hit and the niche

23 screen.oxfordjournals.org p. BO. success with clearly defined 'edge'. Television networks have 23 Michael Curtin, 'On edge: culture responded with original-run repurposing (airing series on both industries in the neo-network era', in Richard Ohmann, Gage broadcast and cable networks during the series' first run), by measuring Averill, Michael Curtin, David audiences based on the multiple airings of the show rather than single Shumway and Elizabeth Traube airings, and by closely watching for audience overlap across various

(eds). Making and Selling Culture at University of Michigan on June 30, 2011 (Hanover, NH: Wesleyan networks and ways to expand these crossover audiences. Many University Press, 1996), practices and standards of the network era continue to operate, others pp. 181-202. have been adjusted, and others yet eliminated and replaced to respond to the dynamic nature of the period. As a medium, television retains its status as the primary storyteller in US society (at least as of 2004), but the multitude of content now available makes it impossible to speak of television in generalities. The fact that audiences have fragmented among various networks and programmes requires that critics revise the scope of their analyses in an effort to respond to the adjusted status of the forum. As David Hesmondhalgh notes, '' (and I would suggest the broader post-network related changes) 'may mean that individual channels and programmes have less public impact and power than in 24 24 David Hesmondhalgh, The Culture the analogue era'. Although he uses this as a reason to emphasize the Industries (London: Sage, 2002), power now held by the process of circulation in the circuit of culture, p. 229. textual analysis remains informative if based in theories that account for the specificity of the post-network era. This seems to make individual series and networks less significant and requires us to search for trends, discourses, and representations that occur across networks and series. This assertion does not contradict the forum model as it was written - the emphasis on cross-programme analysis supported by the 'viewing strip' certainly suggests a comprehensive analysis - but more

430 Screen 45:4 Winter 2004 • Amanda D. Lotz • Using 'network' theory in the post-network era has been made of the scope and space for negotiation aspects in the 25 25 See Newcomb, 'On the dialogic model's application. The post-network era requires an emphasis on aspects', pp. 44-9; Horace definitions of television stressing the breadth of content available and Newcomb, 'One night of prime time: an analysis of television's the notion of television viewing as a process that is not isolatable to a multiple voices', in James Carey single moment, episode or series, instead of the importance of (ed.), Media, Myths, and television based on its scope. Adding this emphasis to the application Narratives: Television and the Press (Newbury Park, CA: Sage, of the forum model does require that those using it subsequently 1988), pp. 88-112. reassess how they theorize the operation of power. Below I will illustrate how the cultural forum model still provides a valuable framework for analyzing the contribution of television texts to the construction and circulation of ideology and the cultural negotiation of ideas and values, particularly if we account for adjustments in the programming environment. The cultural forum model remains of great value if we define television as it now exists as a diffuse medium, rather than narrowly confined to an individual series, episode or similar unit. Understanding that we can only speak of an aspect of television -

not television as a whole - and that we must comprehend the breadth of Downloaded from television, yet speak of it with specificity, helps reintroduce the pervasiveness of its messages that now reach a more narrow scope at the level of the individual programme. screen.oxfordjournals.org

9/11-related discourses in dramatic fictional television

Many media critics focused their analyses on news media in the weeks and months following the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the at University of Michigan on June 30, 2011 Pentagon, but few have acknowledged the negotiation of ideas, fears and values evident across a range of dramatic fictional television series. This case provides a prime example of the limitations of using the cultural forum as a foundation for analyzing the ideological contribution of textual content - if only considering a single text. Such an approach may have been adequate in the network era of television production and reception, but in the post-network era such isolated examinations fall short of indicating anything beyond the series or episode in question and do not comment on the significance of television as a component of the culture industry, as much of such scholarship often suggests. When examining a topic or theme in the post-network era we must cast our nets wider so that we allow the range of content produced to determine the boundaries of our inquiry instead of imposing limitations that may disqualify our statements. Even then, our analyses speak only of the aspect we examine, in this case dramatic television series in the 2001-2002 season, and we must seriously deliberate before asserting that our findings can be considered representative of anything larger. During the eight months from October 2001 to May 2002, television audiences could find sophisticated stories linked implicitly and sometimes explicitly to the disastrous events of 11 September 2001,

Screen 45:4 Winter 2004 • Amanda D. Lotz • Using 'network' theory in the post-network era and the p a i n , fear and a n x i e ty that these events created, in some twelve series spread across seven networks. These stories were mostly stand- alone episodes (not p a r t of ongoing serial storylines), nevertheless unobtrusively motivated by the franchise or setting of the series. In most cases these episodes were not promoted as exceptional, b u t appeared unannounced within the regular flow of prime-time television. I did not search out these episodes, at least not initially, but as they increasingly appeared in my r e g u l a r viewing I started to check episode guides of series I thought likely to have accommodated the dominant themes and intentionally sought out t h e last few shows that had not been part of my regular viewing routine. I mention this because it serves as such a spontaneous illustration of the cultural forum model at its most precise. These multiple and c o n t r a d i c t o r y narratives emerged in an unintentional and u n o r g a n i z e d manner. The p r e p o n d e r a n c e of various themes appeared because of an eruption of cultural sentiment rather than a planned agenda, with media outlets not leading so much as responding to broader cultural events and a t t i t u d e s that were unspoken or between the lines of news coverage and p e r s o n a l Downloaded from conversations. The e p i s o d e s are exceptionally varied in their narrative strategies, contexts, ideological positions and e m p h a s e s , although a few

distinctive motifs emerge. The r e s u l t was a far more vibrant discussion screen.oxfordjournals.org and exploration of post-9/11 fears, policies and u n c e r t a i n t i e s than transpired in nonfictional television content.

Negotiations in police procedural narratives at University of Michigan on June 30, 2011 The District, Law & Order, NYPD Blue, Third Watch a n d The Division are all, at least in part, police procedural franchises that devoted either episodes or an episodic plotline to a motif related to post-9/11 events. In most cases these stories dealt with issues related to stereotyping, which often emerged as an element of police profiling procedures or in the selection of a victim. I will address only an episode of two different series in substantial depth here, but t h e s e narratives must be understood as part of a broader set of stories and s e r i e s . Instead, I could have chosen to focus on the p o s t - 9 / 1 1 stories told through the courtrooms of Family Law, The Practice, Law & Order and a court-style debate in Public; addressed the narratives emerging from a classroom setting in The Education of Max Bickford, Boston Public and The West Wing; or considered how the events were explicitly negotiated within familial contexts in 7th Heaven and American Family. The w i d e - r a n g i n g approach I am a r g u i n g for could only be accomplished by considering all of these series' narratives, which remains a future task. Focusing on the stories emerging in j u s t one t y p e of series serves to illustrate my point and s u g g e s ts the need for inclusive examinations when rooting work in a cultural forum foundation. The episode of The District titled 'Twist of Hate' (CBS, tx 26 January 2002) is arguably the most comprehensive of the police

432 Screen 45:4 Winter 2004 • Amanda D. Lotz • Using 'network' theory in the post-network era procedural narratives, but the density of interrelated stories also makes it somewhat incomprehensible. The episode opens with the police investigating vandalism at a mosque, a crime that is followed the next 26 26 Curiously, The Division episode night with the murder of a rabbi, and then the beating of a black man. 'Before the Deluge' (Lifetime, tx 7 Throughout their investigation, various detectives speak from positions August 2002) begins similarly. The officers respond to the of ethnic bias, publicly negotiating many of the racist assumptions shooting of an Arab-American circulating in post-9/11 US society. The police investigation reveals shopowner, which is immediately that the attacks on the rabbi and the black man were the work of a followed by the murder of female rabbi in a temple in the same single member of a hate group, who admits killing 'the Jew' and the neighbourhood. The Division 'black' to make it look like the 'towel heads' had done it. The police episode then shifts into a hate chief ultimately discovers that the mosque vandalism was the work of crime narrative with a member of multiple white supremacist the mosque's president, Omar Khalid, who sought to gain popular groups ultimately implicated in sympathy and more police protection. His actions have personal the crimes. This story is no more consequences, however, as his daughter gets caught in a violent frenzy about hatred against Arab- Americans than any other group, resulting from protests outside the mosque and ends up in hospital. but its initial similarity in plot and The script is loaded with rapid-fire rhetoric among feuding ethnic inclusion of an Arab-American groups and far more direct statements of prejudice than are common in

victim make it a significant note Downloaded from 27 in assessing the broader debate public discourse. Bald statements of bias ('1 am not a racist, I am a enacted within the televisual realist'; 'If a Christian bombs an abortion clinic then all Christians are cultural forum. fanatics'; 'Christians aren't why police are out guarding airports, dams, 27 Leaders of the Muslim, Jewish, screen.oxfordjournals.org and religious black communities and bridges') are never interrogated, but rather unintelligibly squabble throughout the episode accumulate amidst secondary plots. One subplot also initially suggests because they feel the group they a hate crime against the police chiefs black assistant, which is later represent is being underserved by the police. revealed as a non-racially motivated boys' prank. Adding to the density of hate crime discourse, two detectives discuss their assessments of the at University of Michigan on June 30, 2011 racial situation throughout the episode: Debreno (a white detective) suggests that Page (a black detective) exhibits racist behaviour towards Arab-Americans. The episode reveals the root of this ethnic distrust to be an event Page witnessed while serving in Operation Desert Storm: a sixteen-year-old Saudi Arabian girl killed by her father to restore honour to her family after she was caught running away with a married man. This complex episode includes too many contradictory perspectives to make much sense, particularly as the narrative moves too fast to allow viewers time to reconsider their initial assumptions after learning that Khalid was responsible for the mosque bombing. The episode overdetermines its connection to the post-9/11 world by including a multitude of signifiers in the central plotline as well as the subplots - notably a storyline about auditions to fill an empty position on the police choir, which provides narrative justification for the episode to conclude with a large a cappella men's choir (in uniform) singing 'Impossible Dream' in front of an enormous American flag. Although appearing to be a part of the post-9/11 dramatic negotiations, 'Twist of Hate' ultimately proves to be a different sort of show than others that use their narrative to comment on resulting cultural changes. Where most of the other dramatic episodes engaging post-9/11 discourse do so with a voice that clearly seeks to advance a perspective or encourage

Screen 45:4 Winter 2004 • Amanda D. Lotz • Using 'network' theory in the post-network era consideration of the resulting environment of fear, The District episode uses the 9/11 motif more as a plot catalyst with an uncertain or at least ambivalent sentiment. Nevertheless, its use of so many relevant signifiers makes it pertinent and marks it as part of the cultural negotiation. The multiple plots and subplots, bombastic rhetoric, and the complicated prospect of who was to blame makes it difficult to discern a clear ideological agenda. In one sense the story argues for the importance of peace among subordinated groups (as opposed to killing each other off to the benefit of white extremists), but the revelation of Khalid's complicity at the end of the episode undercuts much of the previous narrative, suggesting the episode sought to offer an anti-Arab- American sentiment along the lines of 'they are bringing this on themselves'. Yet, assessing the entire episode, including initial sympathy with the Arab—American characters, makes such a reading tenuous. The abrupt conclusion perhaps allows the true ramification of this new information to pass without much consideration; but at some level Khalid's actions are to blame for the rabbi's death, the black Downloaded from man's beating, and for creating the level of tension that led to his daughter's assault. Ultimately, I suspect most viewers were left with a

sense of confusion from the repeated narrative contradictions. screen.oxfordjournals.org Importantly, a full episode need not be devoted to post-9/11 themes for complex storytelling to take place. The earliest police procedural narrative to air was a secondary story in the NYPD Blue episode 'Baby Love' (ABC, tx 4 December 2001), in which detectives Medavoy and Jones are called to the scene of an arson attack at a television store at University of Michigan on June 30, 2011 owned by two Arab-American brothers. The story follows the detectives' search for the arsonist and conflict with the storeowners who believe the detectives' initial lack of success results from a half- hearted effort because the victims are Arab—American. This episode also negotiates contemporary tensions by giving public voice to racist statements, but in a manner of critique not advance. When the detectives interrogate the suspect they sympathize with him, suggesting they too believe that 'those people don't belong here anymore' in order to lead him to implicate himself. In the last relevant scene of the episode, Jones discusses his discomfort with using racist rhetoric to motivate the suspect's confession with girlfriend A.D.A. 28 28 It may be relevant for non- Haywood. She reassures him by saying, 'You're not racist, you're viewers to know that Haywood human. There's what goes through your head and what shows in your and Jones are African-American. actions. That's the difference', to which Jones responds, 'Yeah, well I don't like it going through my head, period. It sure as hell wasn't there before September 11th.' The episode also includes a thought-provoking scene in which the son of one of the storeowners visits the squad room to apologize for his father's and uncle's distrust of the police and accusations of police racism. Medavoy returns the apology and the boy then asks the precinct room in general, 'What can we do, 'cos my family has lived here for

434 Screen 45:4 Winter 2004'Amantia D-Lotz • Us'n9 'network' theory in the post-network era thirty years. I was born here. We're Americans.' Although the question appears rhetorical, Sipowicz responds by noting, 'There were times in this country when it wasn't a big plus to be Japanese or German', and Jones adds, 'or black'. The scene concludes with Sipowicz offering the somewhat empty solution that, 'It'll pass. Hang in there.' Despite the less central status of this plotline in the overall narrative of the episode, and the comparative avoidance of symbolic language and rhetoric, this episode provides an examination with considerable emotional depth. Rather than the more theoretical debate of due process erosion that emerges from The District's initial suspicion of an Arab- American in the rabbi's beating, the plotline emphasizes personal struggles and stories. The Arab-American families are highly sympathetic in their plight of being considered American one day and the target of suspicion and hate the next. Sipowicz's advice of 'hang in there' seems empty, but it is the most truthful suggestion that could be offered given the historical context. The decision to include the discussion between Jones and Haywood is significant, as it is entirely Downloaded from superfluous to the narrative and provides a very personalized reaction to the character's internal struggle with the overnight birth of an ethnicity-based stereotype. Haywood's separation of what is thought

and what is done as different components of racism is provocative, and screen.oxfordjournals.org accessible to audience members who also may be struggling with the thoughts Jones acknowledges. In describing NYPD Blue's treatment as emphasizing personal struggles and stories, I do not mean to perpetuate a hierarchical at University of Michigan on June 30, 2011 valuation in which stories that produce institutional solutions are more 29 29 See for example, Todd Gitlin, progressive than stories offering solutions at the individual level. The 'Prime time ideology: the contribution of the NYPD Blue episode and many of the other hegemonic process in television entertainment', in Newcomb (ed.). narratives results from their ability to give a face to the consequences Television: the Critical View. of abstract policy issues. For example, both The Practice and Family pp. 516-36. Law create exceptionally similar episodes dealing with the detainment of Arab-American men on vague and tenuous grounds (other than their ethnic identity). The humanity with which the series construct the characters' suffering from due process erosion indicates how people are affected by policy dictums coded in political rhetoric and delivered by government officials. Updates about new governmental policies may seem 'natural' and 'commonsense' when delivered as decontextualized news items, but posing narratives which encourage audience identification with the victims enables a different kind of 30 30 Admittedly, narratives also could understanding. be constructed to support policies Other series with police procedural components also incorporated such as due process erosion, but significantly, this has not been 9/11 themes. Third Watch constructed companion episodes, the first set the case. on September 10th so that it concludes with the beginning of the Twin Tower disaster ('September 1 lth', NBC, tx 22 November 2001). The subsequent episode, set ten days later on September 21st, depicts the officers exhausted from twelve-hour shifts and somewhat dumbstruck by the support and respect afforded by the people of New York ('After

ZJ35 Screen 45:4 Winter 2004 • Amanda D. Loti • Using 'network' theory in the post-network era Time', NBC, tx 29 November 2001). This normally action-driven show focuses on more personal stories in this episode, with plot time spent following officers through their interactions with each other and family, emphasizing their conversations about their fears and reevaluations of their careers. Law & Order too has incorporated post-9/11 themes into various episodes, although the series tends to focus on these issues more in the courtroom drama than the initial police procedural part of the story. In cases when 9/11 themes emerged in the detective work of Briscoe and Green, it often resulted from discussions about the racial profiling of suspects. As in the episode of The District, in 'Patriot' (NBC, tx 22 May 2002), the detectives investigate the murder of an Arab—American man and find themselves with evidence now considered suspicious because of the man's ethnic identity. Specifically, they find him to have much more money than they would suspect reasonable for his salary as a mechanic, and they struggle with suspicions that he might be a 'sleeper' agent of a terrorist group. Briscoe (a white detective) expresses ethnic prejudice, which leads Green (a black detective) to Downloaded from remind him that such thinking is what leads officers to pull over Green when he is not driving a police vehicle. The detectives continue the

conversation about the 'dirty little secret' of police work (racial screen.oxfordjournals.org profiling) with their lieutenant. Racial profiling-themed stories had appeared frequently in police procedural narratives prior to 9/11, but the new context of Arab-Americans as the primary victims of this practice allowed a reworking of these stories with bias assumptions and at University of Michigan on June 30, 2011 stereotypes that had been previously articulated in relation to discrimination against African-Americans. Across all of the 9/11-themed narratives (not just those set in police procedural stories), motifs about privacy erosion, stereotyping, social tolerance, racial profiling, due process violations, the changed social reality and options for activism recur with varying frequency. Research focused on textual analysis of one of these motifs or the discourse produced in a certain type of series would most likely indicate common 31 Had her argument been different, themes and discrepant foci. In the police procedural narratives Isabelle Freda's consideration of considered here, stories with themes related to racial profiling and an episode of The West Wing dealing with post-9/11 discourse stereotypes are the most common, although it is important to note the would have suffered from such differences and similarities through which writers deploy these stories. assumptions. Isabelle Freda, The primary argument I seek to make with this example is the 'Survivors in The West Wing. 9/11 and the of importance of casting a broad enough net when selecting texts and emergency', in Wheeler Winston making arguments about content. Had I only considered The District's Dixon (ed.). Film and Television episode as representative of 'television's' treatment of post 9/11 4fter9/n (Carbondaie. IL: discourse, I could have made assumptions really only true of an Southern Illinois University Press, 31 2004), pp. 226-46. isolated series and episode.

436 Screen 45:4 Winter 2004 • Amanda D. Loti • Using 'network' theory in the post-network era Conclusion

The fraction of 9/11-themed shows considered here begins to suggest the various ways this event and its cultural consequences have been transmitted, negotiated and shared. Again, I emphasize that this example only includes one set of narratives, and a larger project incorporating legal, family and school-based dramas would indicate a far broader range of stories. The police procedural example is illustrative not only of multiplicity and subtle variation, but also in terms of accumulation. Indeed, this example takes textual negotiation beyond that which occurs in a single text to an ongoing experience of new narratives that might lead viewers to reconsider previous opinions and views. Audience members might make sense of the first 9/11 narrative they view in relation to personal beliefs and news media information, but the second episode then converses with the first, and 32 32 Newcomb, 'On the dialogic so on. aspects', pp. 44-9. It is not likely that audiences see all of the variations provided by

multiple series' treatments of a specific issue. With viewing distributed Downloaded from across a broad range of channel options, it is difficult to speculate about how many or even which types of shows a single audience member is

likely to encounter and in what order. My viewing of narrative fiction screen.oxfordjournals.org may be much broader than most audience members, since I watch shows I enjoy as well as a great many that I might not view if my vocation were different. I happened to see The District episode as a rerun, which aired the day before The Division episode (see fn. 26).

The two narratives (which are initially very similar) consequently at University of Michigan on June 30, 2011 merged, or seemed in conversation with each other, to a degree unlikely had I seen The District episode during its original airing seven months earlier; nor would the scenario have been so impressive if I had only seen one of the episodes. As the transition to a post-network era initiates a shift towards multiple plays of episodes through practices such as original-run repurposing and technologies such as digital video recorders and , which decrease live viewing, it becomes impossible to estimate when and in what order audiences view specific content, even of the most popular shows. Much valuable audience research might investigate these questions and empirically study whether and how audiences negotiate the ideas in multiple series' material. The cultural forum model was able to assume a much less complicated process of circulation when constructing its textual analyses in the network era. The example of 9/11 narratives offers a particularly politically- loaded context, but it is necessary to acknowledge that cross-text exploration of ideas also occurs for less mainstream and ideologically significant stories. For example, in earlier thinking on this topic I noticed that many of the medical shows that I watch, specifically ER, Strong Medicine and Providence, offered episodes exploring Munchhausen Syndrome by Proxy. A similar cross-text analysis might

Screen 45:4 Winter 2004 • Amanda D. Lotz • Using 'network' theory in the post-network era be done for episodes on racial profiling in police procedural narratives or other 'ripped from the headlines' stories that different programmes incorporate. Although the example I use here is quite exceptional in its centrality to material political and ideological concerns, this approach is useful across a broad range of topics and discourses. The assertions of the cultural forum model remain effective for considering programming during this transition to a post-network era, particularly when it is used with recognition of how the television industry and the experience of being a television viewer have changed and how these adjustments continue. The dynamic nature of contemporary institutional processes requires constant reassessment of the foundational theories and assumptions that underpin critical media work. The argument and analysis presented here examines only one of many foundational theoretical perspectives; it is likely that reconsidering others might also prove useful, while others might easily adapt to different institutional contexts. Most scholarship employing the cultural forum emphasizes its allowance for the presence of contradictory or varying content with a Downloaded from suggestion that this diversity of ideas provides a space for negotiation. Characteristics of the post-network era require that critics de-emphasize

the model's theorization of television's scope, but instead accentuate screen.oxfordjournals.org the multiplicity of series and content it makes available. The process of content dissemination becomes more relevant in the post-network era, while the deliberate selection of units of analysis becomes crucial to producing valid scholarship. In some ways, the post-network at University of Michigan on June 30, 2011 multiplicity of television content enhances the relevance of the cultural forum model, because the multiplicity of channels expands the 'forum' in significant ways. Admittedly, the technology should not be viewed as determinant, but we can look to research on audiences to confirm that audiences do engage a broader range of channels than the network- era three. Similarly, viewing schedules provide evidence of the greater variety of forms and content available, despite increasingly centralized ownership and various repurposing strategies. In some situations the model still operates effectively. Networks targeting specific sub- populations still operate in the tradition of the forum, although only among a particular and homogeneous population, as in the case of among children and MTV among teens. Other aspects of the forum model diminish in their importance in this new context. As suggested here, scope must be carefully attended to in determining units of analysis, and although the viewing strip remains a useful theoretical concept, actually exploring the viewing sequence of a particular viewer tells us little about the larger television phenomenon, because these strips have become so individualized with the multiplicity of options available (although, as Newcomb notes, some eighty-one possibilities were available on a given night even in the 33 33 Newcomb, 'One night', p. 9 1 . network era). Relatedly, the changes of the post-network era alter the position of television in what Bernard Miege theorized as three logics

438 ^creen 45:4 Winter 2004' Amanda D- Lot2 • Us!n9 'network' theory in the post-network era 34 34 Bernard Miege, The Capitalization underlying the production of culture and information. In the late of Cultural Production ( N e w York, 1980s context of his writing, Miege could argue that television fitted NY: Information General, 1989). into a 'flow model', which is characteristic of media manifesting continuity, a range of diffusion, and ephemerality. Contemporary US television is increasingly representative of an alternative model - what Miege identifies as a 'publishing model'. Industries operating under the logic of the publishing model typically feature a great uncertainty in product success and respond to this uncertainty by producing a large catalogue of texts to disperse risk and by segmenting audiences with content tailored to specific tastes. By the beginning of the twenty-first century, US television is best understood as demonstrating attributes that blend the flow and publishing models. The shift in the application of Miege's models illustrates another example of how theoretical models must be refined and reconceptualized as the object of study evolves. The adjustments in theories the post-network era requires of frameworks such as the cultural forum or Miege's models indicate the Downloaded from limitations and, ultimately, the inadequacy of adopting grand, macro- level theoretical frameworks to explain the relationships between commercial cultural industries and the ideological content of their textual products. The intricate variations of these industries are far too screen.oxfordjournals.org complex; the dynamic nature of their organizational logic prevents theories about their operation that assume that they 'always' or 'never' do anything, however elegant, from attending to the variations of their practice. at University of Michigan on June 30, 2011 As an object of study, US television has changed considerably since the creation of many of the foundational theories through which it is commonly understood. Just as the frameworks of analysis have varied in response to shifts in assumptions about the operation of media in society, they must adjust in response to significant developments and alterations in the media themselves. By the mid 1990s, the US television industry had removed itself from the industrial logic that had governed it since its creation. Its evolution into a new emergent logic may not be complete, but the development is significant enough that residual frameworks for understanding the medium require updating and revision. Network-era models and frameworks will not necessarily become obsolete, but the validity of the assumptions upon which they were built will require reconsideration.

439 Screen 45:4 Winter 2004 • Amanda 0. Lotz • Using 'network' theory in the post-network era